How to Use Seaweed Pesto: Three Easy Ways to Cook With It Tonight
Three ways, all of them finished in the time it takes to boil pasta: stir a spoonful through hot pasta once the pan is off the heat, spread it cold on bread or under a fried egg, or loosen it with olive oil and lemon into a dressing for potatoes, grains or roasted vegetables. Seaweed Pesto is already cooked and seasoned, so nothing here asks you to learn a new technique. It asks you to use it like a pesto and expect a slightly different flavour at the end.
What does Seaweed Pesto actually taste like?
Savoury first, green second. There is no basil in it. The green comes from blanched Arctic kelp, and the savoury depth comes from the same place: winged kelp carries a mild vegetal flavour with a hint of hazelnut and a clean sea note, closer to a good stock than to anything fishy. If you have cooked with wakame, the family resemblance is not a coincidence. Alaria esculenta is sometimes sold as wild Atlantic wakame.
Practically, this means the pesto behaves less like a herb sauce and more like an anchovy or a spoon of miso: it makes the rest of the dish taste more of itself.
Seaweed Pesto is 32% blanched Arctic kelp, the highest share of kelp in any can we make.
One: pasta, ten minutes, one pan
The simplest use, and the one most people start with. Cook the pasta, keep a cup of the starchy water, then take the pan off the heat before the pesto goes in. Add a spoonful per person, a splash of the pasta water, and stir until it coats rather than sits. Salt at the end, not before, since the kelp brings its own savoury weight and you will need less than you think.
We have written the full version out here: Seaweed pesto pasta, ten minutes.
Two: cold, on bread, on eggs, on potatoes
No cooking at all. A thin layer on sourdough with a slice of tomato. A spoonful next to a fried or soft boiled egg. Stirred through warm boiled potatoes with butter while they are still steaming. This is where the pesto is most exposed, because nothing else is competing, so start with less and taste before adding more.
It also works as the layer nobody sees: under a piece of baked white fish, or spread on the base of a tart before the vegetables go on.
Three: loosen it into a dressing
Whisk one part pesto with roughly two parts olive oil, then sharpen with lemon juice or vinegar. That is a dressing for roasted carrots, grain bowls, lentils, green beans or a plate of tomatoes. Stirred into plain yoghurt or a thick oat alternative instead of oil, the same ratio gives you a dip that holds up next to flatbread and raw vegetables.
This is the version that scales best if you are feeding several people, since a single can stretches a long way once it is thinned.
Does heat ruin it?
Long, hard cooking is not where this jar performs. Sustained boiling flattens the fresher green notes, and the savoury depth stays but the aroma thins out. The habit worth building is simple: add it late, off direct heat, and let the residual warmth of the pan do the work. In a soup or a stew, stir it in after you have turned the hob off.
How much do you need?
A rough starting point is one heaped teaspoon per person for pasta, and less than that for anything eaten cold. Because the kelp share is high, the flavour arrives quickly, and it is easier to add a second spoon than to rescue a dish from the first. Once the can is open, keep it in the fridge and use it within a few days, as you would with any fresh pesto.
FAQ
Is Seaweed Pesto vegan?
Yes. Three of our four flavours are vegan. The Red Seaweed Purée is the exception, because it contains fish sauce.
Does it taste fishy?
It should not. Winged kelp is described as sweet and mildly vegetal rather than fishy, and the kelp is blanched before it goes into the recipe, which softens both texture and aroma.
Can I use it instead of basil pesto in a recipe?
In most cases yes, one for one, with two adjustments: salt later, and add it off the heat rather than simmering it.
Where does the kelp come from?
It is grown on lines at Rødøy on the Helgeland coast in Arctic Northern Norway, then cooked and canned in Lofoten.
How long does an open can last?
Keep it refrigerated after opening and treat it as a fresh product. [INSERT SPECIFIC DAYS FROM PACKAGING]
The products in this post
If you would rather not choose, the Taster Pack puts all four cans on the shelf at once, which is the quickest way to find out which one earns a permanent place in your kitchen.
Sources
Flavour and species notes: Maine Coast Sea Vegetables, What is Alaria seaweed; Alaria esculenta, Wikipedia. Norwegian cultivation context: Effect of Deployment and Harvest Date on Growth and High-Value Compounds of Farmed Alaria esculenta, Marine Drugs, 2023.